An excerpt from the discussion in Lok Sabha on civil aviation during question hour, July 9, 2009.
Tathagata Satpathy (DHENKANAL): Madam, we are used to toll gates being put up on highways or on roads that have been completed. When companies took up Mumbai and Delhi Airports for modernisation, everybody was excited about it.
But what we see today in the airports? Madam, you must have travelled from Delhi so many times. If you or the Minister had to carry your own baggage, you may find that the conveyer belts are so close to each other that people do not know where to stand. The toilets are stinking. These cannot be called as modern airports.
My question is, why are we defraying the cost of private companies which are supposed to modernise the airports at their cost? How many of the Members, who are very conscious, highly educated people of this nation know that every time they fly in or out of Delhi, they pay Rs 200 as airport fee. If they go abroad, they pay Rs 1,000 from Delhi and Rs 1,300 from Mumbai.
Praful Patel: Madam Speaker, the spirit of the question is that why are we being made to pay for the development of the modern infrastructure. To an extent we must understand that our airport infrastructure has not kept up with the times. As a result of which, we have, in the last few years, embarked upon a major expansion drive.
To say that airports of India are not changing or to say that infrastructure at airports has not changed in the last few years would be unfair. But of course, there is always scope for improvement in whatever we choose to do.
The cost of modernisation of these airports is above Rs 9,000 crore (Rs 90 billion). In the IGI Airport, already more than Rs 5,500 crore (Rs 55 billion) has been spent. When you take off, you can notice on the left side. A new terminal is coming up, which is almost going to be comparable to one of the finest terminals in the world.
You yourself have rightly pointed out that toll is paid when you go on the road. Toll is paid for many other services now. In the good old days, we never used to pay for water; and we never paid for going on the road.
But these are now concepts where funding has to be done through public participation. I think, toll or a development fee is something we may not have been used to in the past. But increasingly in the future we have to get used to it. Right now we are paying a development fee for the upgrade of Delhi and Mumbai airports, which are done by private people. Upgrade is being done in the case of Hyderabad and Bangalore airports also, which are new ones.
The Airports Authority of India has been undertaking the development of airports. It is upgrading Chennai, Kolkata and various other airports. I will go one step further and add that development fee should be levied even in the case of airports being upgraded by the Airports Authority of India. That is one of the suggestions which is also under consideration of our Ministry.
SATPATHY: I reiterate my question. I insisted and I very clearly mentioned that you pay toll tax only when the road is complete. You do not pay toll tax for a road when it is being built. So, when a private company has been given an airport to build on a commercial basis, they will make money out of it. It is a commercial venture for them.
I do not wish to mention the name of the company. But the company building the Delhi airport is also building a huge power plant in my constituency, Dhenkanal, Orissa. So, I have no objections. What I am trying to say is that when they have the money to invest in other parts of the country and in different other projects, why are they charging the passengers?
Why are they bleeding the passengers without letting the people know? Why do they not put a box, like the Red Cross one, so that when you wish, you can donate money? So, GMR can put a box like that so that whoever, whether it is the Minister or the Members can donate, say Rs 200. We have no objections to that.
PATEL: Madam, I have answered bulk of the questions in my earlier reply. But I can add one more thing on whether things are being done fairly and transparently.
Airport Economic Regulatory Authority has already been constituted which has been approved by both the Houses of Parliament. It has already started functioning and like other regulatory authorities, which are at an arm's length from the decision-making process of the Government or the Executive, will decide about the questions, which now you have raised here.
